http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-britain-belongs-in-a-new-nafta-1467932567

Why Britain Belongs in a New Nafta

After Brexit, the U.S. must help prevent Europe from slipping into nativism and protectionism.

By Robert B. Zoellick

July 7, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal

At critical moments over the past century, the United States has acted boldly and creatively to secure Europe’s peace and prosperity. After the fighting of two devastating wars across Europe, America’s Marshall Plan spent $120 billion (in current dollars) over four years to spark Western Europe’s economic recovery and political integration. In 1949 the U.S., Canada, and Western European states invented NATO as a trans-Atlantic shield. In 1989 President George H.W. Bush moved rapidly yet deftly to unify Germany within NATO and the European Community, setting the cornerstones of a Europe “whole and free.”
Britain’s vote to exit the EU now launches an uncertain and dramatic course of negotiations and public debates that will shape the future of the British Isles, the EU, trans-Atlantic ties and global growth. The U.S. must have a plan. As during historical pivot points of the past, America must shape events, not wince and dismiss the turmoil in Britain and Europe. http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-britain-belongs-in-a-new-nafta-1467932567